HAPPY EASTER!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Easter! May your eggs be golden, and your Cadury's Chocolate Mini Egg cup runneth over!

Threadbanger.com

This is such an awesome video! A colorful and fun explanation of Etsy and the new Labs!

Courtesy of ThreadBanger.com!

Illustration Friday: Green!

I was really excited this morning when I saw that the IF theme this week was green. Although it seemed to be a bit early this year on the West Coast, I love Spring! I get inspired to get out into the garden and give a little love to the plants that have been neglected all winter long. I get to fill empty and abandoned pots with beautiful blooms and turn the soil in our little veggie garden for this year attempt at home grown treats. It is always so satisfying to snap a tomato off the vine and enjoy it in a salad!

Once the sun starts to warm, my work also tends to get into the Springy groove. I gravitate toward more botanical and natural themes once I have a little dirt under my fingernails. This will seem slightly daft, but none of this really occurred to me until recently, although this is only my 3rd year as a full time artist. I will pretend like that is the reason. . . . LOL

The piece pictured above, Jocelyn, is one of my most recent pieces. She has quickly become one of my favorites!

Everyday I go out into the garden, and there is so much going on! I spotted this giant ladybug in the new daiseys! Actually, she was so big, it would have been hard to miss her!

Revlon Run/Walk, May 12th, 2007

I am really excited to announce that I will be participating in this years Revlon Run/Walk in Los Angeles on May 12th. I did the Run/Walk in NYC in 2001 and it was an amazing feeling walking in the crowd and seeing the number of women who are survivors, and the number of people who were there to support and honor the memories of someone they loved.

I am walking in the memory of a family friend who very recently lost her battle with Cervical Cancer. Anastasia was a young and beautiful wife and mother. She had a wonderful family and leaves behind a 2 year old son. I mention this, as it is especially poignant, because the Revlon event is being held Mothers Day weekend.

If you are in LA or NY, and would like to participate in the event, register on Revlon's site. The process is quick and easy! Even better, get a bunch of friends together! You'll have a blast and the 5k will fly by!

If you aren't in either city, and would like to make a donation, please click here.

As a Thank You to everyone who donates, I will be sending them a 10% off coupon to use on anything in my shop! After all, no good deed goes unrewarded . . . at least not on this blog!

Happy April Fools~!!

I had to just writ a quick post and wish everyone a happy April Fools Day!! I hope you haven't fallen for some crazy gag! You had better believe I have had my eyes peeled all day for tricksters! We have spent the whole weekend replacing flowers and plants that we lost in the crazy frost we had in So. Cal in Feb. Now there is lots of color and life in the yard!

We decided to go completely tomato this year in the veggie garden. We like them the best anyway! The herbs are also all ready for cooking!

OK-gotta get back out there and paint the garden closet before Tom catches me blogging! LOL It is Sunday after all!

Focus.de Interview

A few months ago I met with Janko Röttgers, a German journalist living in LA, to discuss how wonderful Etsy is! The piece was for a German online zine called Focus. The whole thing is in German, so I have no idea what it really says, but I translated it in Sherlock, and here is what I get:

"it is great. Fantastisch. Madly." Michelle Caplan can hardly seize
their enthusiasm into words, if she speaks about the on-line
commercial platform Etsy. Etsy is a market place for handmade. More
than 140,000 artists and other creative humans sell there decoration,
handgeschneiderte clothes, even sketched, non-standard arranged
greeting cards and so on. ABOUT interview: Renaissance of the handmade
Caplan uses the platform for approximately one year, in order to offer
her collages and printing consisting of old photos and newspaper
articles for the purchase. Etsy helped to make from its hobby an
occupation reports into of Los Angeles living artist. "I won thereby
even customers from the foreign country", so Caplan. "I do not know,
why it gave such a thing not already in former times."

Buy after colours

Etsy.com is part of a new generation of on-line supplies, which
connect a buying with new Web technologies and a InterNet-typical
community feeling - a combination, which is called also Social
Shopping. Etsy users can structure as with MySpace connections among
themselves. Over these connections then again dealer with similar
products lets itself be found.

Etsy sets besides on a whole number of innovative items, in order to
simplify consumers a discovering of new products. Thus the entire
catalog can be searched on the basis a color matrix. This displays
then for example handmade bookmarks, smell cushions and illustrations,
which possess all the same blue value.

Better than Ebay

Michelle Caplan believes that such spielerischen discovery
journeys are ideal for art and handmade. "you show things, which one
would not find otherwise", explains her. On traditional sales
platforms one would be neglectable as a niche provider against it much
too fast. "nobody clicks itself by 15 pages of full art articles" to
report white it from own experience as a former Ebay ebay-Haendlerin. . . .

As you can see, the translation is a bit funky, but I think you can get the idea. The article goes on to talk about ThisNext, and Threadless as well. You can see the German version here.

Tote Hell!

Lately I have been focusing on designing sewn items with my art on them. I have designed a few items that will all be one of a kind. I'll be sharing those soon. But today, I have to share my very first tote bag, because it almost made me give up sewing all together!

Nothing makes you feel like you've had a total brain fart more than doing one side perfectly and then doing the other just backwards! I feel like the coyote that has just been struck by the anvil! I am seeing stars! I am sure this will all get easier as I practice. I just cant wait for those days!

Funky Chicken?

A very well kept secret is that I am a big fan of educational TV. Last night I was engrossed in the new Discovery Channel Series Planet Earth. Did you see it?? Last night were the first 3 episodes, and there are 11 in total. They were just amazing! All I can say is that the footage is so rare and gorgeous, I wish I was in an IMAX theater! All of the unusual animals were breathtaking. My favorite vignette was a bit about Birds of Paradise in New Guinea. It was a segment in the "Poles to Poles" episode, and it showed the mating rituals of these ornate and colorful male birds. They danced around trying to impress the females. It was both hysterical and elegant at the same time. The above picture is of the Blue Bird of paradise (Yes, that black oval with the teal is a bird!) trying to woo that lady bird!

You can see a short clip of this segment if you click here, select the second tab (Planet Earth Highlights, like in the pic) and scroll down to close to the bottom to the birdie bit.

I wish I could link you right to it, or have it plugged in here, but Discovery Channel doesn't make it easy! Try to catch the episode on Discovery so you get to see the entire segment. It was inspiring!

Etsy induced hunger

Did anyone see the Etsy homepage this evening?? My stomach actually growled! Granted, it is 11:38 at night, and my eyes are half open, but still! These plushies are super cool!

IF: I Spy . . .

This weeks Illustration Friday theme is I Spy . . . , and I just happened to finish this piece this morning! She is spying over the top of her fan, and I am sure that she is looking into the eyes of her parent, or friend, and they are enjoying a Spring afternoon. So, I spy with my little eye family and fun.

I woke with a sore throat this morning, so forgive the Dayquil induced sillyness!

Tin Fairy Houses

My super talented friend Tyn taught a class this past weekend at Creative Courage in Woodland Hills. I was lucky enough to get a chance to take the class and play for a few hours. As an artist who works alone 99.9% of the time, it was really fun to get to hang out and laugh and share with other people. The process was fun to learn! I was impressed by how wonderful the final results were! Everyone made gorgeous pieces and spent a wonderful afternoon. Thank you Tyn!

Self-Portrait Challenge

Today was a good day. A day I have anticipated for months! My new computer is finally here! About 6 months ago my Powerbook screen stopped working when the hinge snapped. That was a bad day. But today, the skies have cleared! This is my first post typed from my brand new Macbook Pro. I am so grateful for the mobility, the speed, and the working screen! Love this thing! The huge jump in RAM and the disk space doesn't hurt either, though I am sure it will all be gone before I know it!

So, for this weeks SPC I give you my very first screen shot from the built in camera. That is pretty hi-tech if I do say so myself!

And in case you are wondering, I am feeling a lot less sick of myself this week! A haircut, a visit to the Paper Source for a fresh supply, and a brand spankin' new computer really help to inspire and lift ones spirits! I hope the week is treating you as kindly!

Felt Club Auctions!

All of the Felt Club Auctions end tomorrow! Lots of So.Cal crfters donated item to the auctions. This is a great opportunity to score some very cool swag, while helping out our very beloved craft fair! Go check it out!

Lot# 1

Lot# 2

Lot# 3
The 2007 schedule for this years Felt Club events is also now available! Be sure to check their website for all news and updates! Happy bidding!

(All images courtesy of Felt Club)

Illustration Friday: Total

This weeks IF theme is total. I just recently finished these pieces. The title is FlirtationA, because she is a total flirt!

Happy weekend!!

Self Portrait Challenge

This month the Self Portrait Challenge is to create a portrait using online tools to alter your images. I chose to try out a tool called Typedrawing. Lately I have been feeling very sick of myself. Not is a terrible way, but in a "get off your ass" and "dont eat that cookie" way. I know that the feeling will pass, that I am just frustrated, but today, this morning, right now, this is my perfect self portrait.

If you would like to see the full animation of my face self portrait come together, click here.

Molly & Kathy

A recently finished commission. 12"x16"

Illustration Friday-Wired

One of the things that I really love about all of these old photos that I collect and use in my work is how simple life was 80 years ago. I don't think that life was easier. I certainly wouldn't want to be rubbing my clothes on a washboard, but I do wonder about the peace and quiet. I feel like we are all so constantly inundated with technology and rushing cars and noise that sometimes I, at least, feel like I am way too overloaded. So, for this weeks Illustration Friday theme of wired, I offer a more unplugged version.

Happiness

12"x 16"
A recently finished commissioned piece.

Paper Quilt Project-A Day in My Life

I was exceptionally inspired when I started playing around with these pieces of paper and am surprised by how relevant these random scraps are to my life recently! It seems that lately everyone around me is talking about pregnancy, has just had a baby or asking me when we plan to get started. My niece recently turned 1, and watching her grow and start to walk and make major accomplishments in such a small amount of time has made blown my mind! We have connections through our family and friends who are all in various stages of parenthood. So the conversations have begun. We are looking to the future and making serious decisions about taking the step to becoming parents ourselves. (This is not an announcement by any means, just an explanation as to why these pages really struck a chord!)

There are 2 other parts of the collage, bits that seem like randomly places items, that mean a great deal to me personally, which is why I made sure that they were included in this composition. The capital "E" in the top right corner is representative of my great-grandmother Esther, from whom I get my middle name, Emma. My niece is also Emma, but not necessarily named after me.

There is also a "40" on the left hand side. My father was 40 when I was born, and I think about this quite often. I am not sure why. Maybe because I am a bit dyslexic and have a hard time with numbers. I can always calculate his age quickly when asked! (LOL, not really, I don't think!) Four is also one of our lucky numbers.

There is a Flickr acct. set up to share all of the finished pieces as they come in. Check it out here.